Code Of Ethics For Media By A Concerned Citizen

By a concerned citizen -June 9, 2013

Code Of Ethics For Media

Leader employees helpless

Sunday, 09 June 2013

A statement by the head of the Leader Company, Asanga Seneviratne that the employees of The Sunday Leader and Irudina newspapers were not employees of his Leader Holdings Limited and that he could not be held responsible for the payment of EPF and ETF to the employees has left the Leader employees in a helpless situation.

Asanga Seneviratne has said the employees were part of Lal Wickrematunge’s Leader Publications Pvt Limited. He has told the Editor of the Irudina newspaper, Mohan Lal Piyadasa during a discussion that he had not taken any employee from Leader Publications to Leader Holdings when the ownership was transferred.

Editor in Chief of The Sunday Leader, Sakunthala Perera had also been present during the discussion as Asanga’s representative. Piyadasa had continuously questioned the current situation of the company. Angered by Piyadasa’s questions Sakunthala Perera had asked if he had any way of proving that he is the editor of the Irudina newspaper.

She had said that there were no documents in Piyadasa’s personal file in the company that to prove that he is the editor of the Irudina newspaper. An angry Piyadasa had then walked out of the meeting saying he could prove who the Irudina editor is before a court of law.

When details of this discussion were known by the Leader employees it was revealed that none of the employees have received their employment contracts under the new management and there was uncertainty over the payment of EPF and ETF.

Following this clash, the new management has decided to remove the staff of the Irudina newspaper and replace them including the editor with a team of journalists from the Lakbima newspaper headed by Lakbima Editor, Jatila Wellabada.

Employees of The Sunday Leader and Irudina newspapers are also faced with another issue. Several well known racketeer businessmen have openly claimed ownership to the newspaper company. Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal’s racketeer friend, Anura Fernando, Nimal Perera and Dhammika Perera have said that they had invested money in Leader Holdings